


Warmth

by echoist



Category: Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-05-07
Updated: 2010-05-07
Packaged: 2017-10-09 08:44:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/85260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/echoist/pseuds/echoist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aww, my first Tsubasa fic, before I had the slightest clue what CLAMP was up to with this series.  Set sometime around episode 12 of the anime, in Spirit Town, when pretty much everything about the characters was still conjecture.  Not exactly gen fic, but not precisely shippage either.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Warmth

 

        Kurogane awoke with a start, reaching reflexively for the sword at his side – the sword, he remembered belatedly, that was no longer there. He settled for rolling onto his sword arm and striking out with his left to clinch and hold his attacker by the throat.  “Ku-Kuro-rin,” the figure choked out around his grip. “You're awake!”

        “I am now, idiot.” Kurogane muttered, dropping his stranglehold on the interloper. “What the hell do you think you're doing, anyway? It's the middle of the freakin' night.”  Fay responded with a grin, the corners of his eyes turning up with his usual dose of false cheer. “It's cold.”

        “So?”

        “So, I...well...” Fay blinked, fluttering his eyelashes, though Kurogane was almost certain his eyes had never opened in the first place. “It would be much warmer over here with you, Kuro-chan!”

        “Don't call me 'Kuro-chan',” he barked, shoving Fay off the narrow mattress. “And I don't really give a flying rat's ass if you're cold or not. Get some sleep.”

        A disappointed sigh rose up from the floor. Kurogane ignored his hapless traveling companion and pulled the thin blanket up over his ears. He admitted, grudgingly, it _had_ grown colder in the room since he fell asleep...but he never would have noticed if that moron hadn't woken him up.   He snuck a glance at the window, ice-fettered panes rattling eerily in the everpresent wind.  The snow seemed to have piled even higher since he had been asleep.  _Mind over matter_, he thought, and squeezed his eyes shut.

  
_        Scrape. Shuffle, swish. Scrape._

  
        Kurogane opened one eye. The fuck was that noise? He waited a moment in silence, then - 

        S   
_huffle. Scraaaaape. _   
A muffled curse, and    
_that_   
at least bordered on familiar, though he couldn't remember ever having heard the pale wizard so much as raise his voice. 

        “Oi, asshat, how about letting me get some sleep over here?”

        “A thousand pardons, Kuro-pon.” Fay's sing-song voice floated up from where he crouched before the hearth, poking ineffectually at the dying embers. The warrior sighed. He was never going to get any rest at this rate.

        “Don't you even know how to make a fire?” Kurogane asked, throwing back the blanket and padding across the floor to loom over the wizard.    
_The hell are you good for, anyway? _   
The wizard's hands shook with cold as he stirred the dimly glowing coals, despite having donned his long traveling cloak and surcoat over his nightclothes. “I thought you said the world you came from was even colder than this one? What gives?"

        “My world is a great deal colder than this provincial winter,” Fay acknowledged, aimlessly prodding the recalcitrant embers with a poker. “However, before leaving my world, I had the benefit of magic to protect me from the elements.”

        “The witch said - “

        “I know very well what Yūko-san said through the construct,” Fay snapped, and Kurogane took a step backwards at the unexpected force. The wizard closed his eyes for a moment and stood, danging the poker uselessly from one finger. 

        “Then why don't you just - “

        “Kurogane.” Fay interrupted, stilling the poker's swing in his grasp. “I have sworn not to use my magic without the seal in place. The matter is closed.” He turned back towards the other bed, leaning the poker against the bricks in defeat.

        “But wouldn't it be easier if you could just - “

        “You aren't listening.” Kurogane picked up the poker and jabbed at the embers, lighting up a coal at the center with a focused breath. 

        “I heard what you said, I just don't understand why you'd give up that kind of power voluntarily.”

        Fay let out a laugh that was closer to a sigh. “You don't understand anything, do you, you big oaf?” Kurogane grunted in response, strangely glad to find they had retreated from first-name territory into the murky borderland of insults and children's names.  “Yūko-san took the most precious thing each of us had in return for her services. How does it feel to enter a fight without your beloved Ginryuu in your hand?”

        Kurogane stopped poking at the coals. “So, that design on your back...?”

        Fay let out a long, slow breath. “You do not want me to channel a single mote of my power without that seal etched into my skin. Our lovely princess, her terribly earnest knight, and even you, my dear warrior, would not live long enough to regret it.”

        Kurogane said nothing. “At least,” the wizard continued softly, “You can still be of some use without your chosen weapon. I've been nothing more than dead weight on this little adventure.” 

        “Oi,” Kurogane objected, giving up on the hearth. “Stop whining. You've been – you're – well...” he trailed off, scratching his head. “You can still fight, even without your magic.”

        “Child's play,” Fay muttered, suppressing a shiver. 

        “It's a damn sight better than that,” Kurogane heard himself argue, and just when exactly had he been on this loser's side? “I know a trained fighter when I see one. Besides, batshit crazy or not, you always seem to ch – well, that is, you - you make    
_her _   
smile.” The words were out before he could stop them, and he stared down at a knot in the warped floorboards, embarrassed.    
_A bloody mascot, that's what you are. Moron. _

        The wizard lifted his head and glanced back over his shoulder. He couldn't tell if the color flooding Kurogane's cheeks was from the fire, or - 

        The fire. “Kuro-rin!” Fay exclaimed, and he looked up to see the wizard's eyes wide with excitement. “You fixed it!” 

        “No, I - “ he started to argue, cut off by a pair of thin arms wrapping around his chest, his face full of soft, blond hair. 

        “Thank you,” the wizard murmured into his shirt, pulling away before Kurogane could even curse him out soundly for the intrusion. 

        “I didn't do anything,” he muttered, staring into the crackling flames. 

        “Sure you did, Kuro-tan.” Fay assured him, climbing into bed, his usual smile fixed from ear to ear. “I'll be warm enough to sleep, now.” He burrowed into the mattress and closed his eyes with a contented sigh, his breathing settling into a quiet rhythm within moments.

  
_        Lucky bastard_   
, Kurogane thought as he watched the wizard sleep. He eyed the flickering coals mistrustfully before retreating back to his bed, knowing better than to think the fire's resuscitation had been accomplished through his efforts. Still, he had to admit, the glow from the hearth was a comfort in this unfamiliar world. He was glad to have the warmth as long as it lasted, no matter what had finally caught, and held, the flames. 

  
8/19/2008


End file.
